We talked to the women behind the #PussyGrabsBack response to the Donald Trump tapes.

Earlier this week, in the hours before the final presidential debate, a call rang out in front of Trump Tower in New York City.

“Pussy grabs back!”

It wasn’t just one or two women, but a horde that assembled along Fifth Avenue to give Donald Trump a piece of their minds after leaked audio from 2005 revealed the Republican nominee bragging about sexual assault — when you’re a star, he said, you don’t need consent to touch women. “Grab them by the pussy,” he told Access Hollywood host Billy Bush. It’s one of many protests over the last two weeks that have shown women coming together in solidarity against the candidate.

PussyGrabsBack has become the unified response from women around the world who see Trump’s actions and hear his words for what they are: misogynist, predatory, and unacceptable for a presidential candidate.

Behind the slogan are writer and performer Amanda Duarte and Feminist Fight Club author Jessica Bennett, who teamed up to create a badass graphic of the phrase atop an image of a cat, ready to bite (original image by Stella Marrs). After Jessica shared the meme with a tweet that reads, “NOV. 8: PUSSY GRABS BACK,” the phrase caught fire. A T-shirt with Feminist Collective followed, and the women decided to donate a portion of the proceeds to RAINN, the world’s largest anti-sexual violence organization.

We interviewed these heroes to learn more about the movement.

Amanda Duarte: I have, like most women I know, been feeling sickened by the misogynist rhetoric coming not only from Trump, but from the entire GOP for years. And then to hear a presidential candidate bragging about sexually assaulting women, well, my pussy got really angry. She is tired of feeling violated and unsafe, and she isn't gonna take it lying down. I got this image in my mind of my pussy just snapping back at his disgusting tiny hand. I thought about how we all have this power to absolutely shut him down on November 8, and felt very empowered, and thought, let's rally the pussy troops.

Jessica Bennett: And I was home alone on a Saturday night, just hanging with my dozen or so cats in a fit of feminist rage, trying to figure out what to even say about all of it. And then I saw Amanda's post and thought, THAT'S IT. It put the power back in women’s hands. So I took the slogan, paired it with an image of a snarling cat that I happened to have lying on my desk (obvi), and the internet took over.

Teen Vogue: And I understand it’s prompted a kind of pussy revolution?

JB: From one pussy meme emerged a thousand more pussy memes, and it’s been awesome to watch it spread. We quickly reached out to Stella Marrs, the artist whose postcard I had borrowed the cat from, and partnered with her and another woman, Female Collective, to put the image onto T-shirts – donating a portion of proceeds to RAINN. Then our friend Kim Boekbinder wrote a song called "Pussy Grabs Back,” which performed it at Amanda’s variety show, Dead Darlings. From that emerged a giant protest at Trump Tower using the slogan, completely independently organized by others. So in effect, a bunch of pussies working together to create #change.

TV: What do you think it is about the slogan that made it take off?

JB: I don’t know that there’s any real formula to a meme, but to me “Pussy Grabs Back” had the perfect combination of anger, humor, action, punk rock, and — you know what's coming — pussy. You could laugh at it, you could be pissed, but you could also feel like you had power to fight back.

TV: Donald Trump has said a lot of misogynistic things in his lifetime, much of which has been spent in the public eye, but this election has elevated his voice. What’s the most dangerous thing about his attitude toward women?

JB: Where to even begin. I think the most dangerous thing about his attitude is that for so long he was able to get away with it; to go unchecked. And even now — after we have video evidence to prove that he’s a scumbag — that people are still supporting him!

AD: He clearly does not view women as human beings ... He brags about sexually assaulting 51% of the population, and he is still being treated seriously as a candidate to represent us on the world stage. I feel like we’re living in Bizarro World, or the Upside Down.

TV: Why are his claims of “locker room talk” just a bogus excuse?

AD: ...To imply that this is the way all men talk about women is offensive to men, and simply false.

TV: When addressing Trump’s comments about sexual assault, you also called out “the party he rode in on.” In what ways does Republican party work against women?

AD: The most obvious answer is their constant fight to restrict women’s reproductive rights. Of course there are many many other ways the GOP works against women — they constantly vote against equal pay, they do not support women’s freedom to marry other women, they do not support women in combat, they vote to criminalize transgender women, and the way that they view and discuss rape is simply horrifying. It would be faster to list the ways in which the Republican Party works FOR women. Actually, it isn’t faster, because I can’t think of any.

TV: His choice of word — "pussy" — caused outrage that almost overshadowed the assaults. Is your meme a reclamation?

JB: I hope so, and I have to say we were both pretty pleased to see the word appear – in the context of grabbing back – on the pages of international newspapers and other outlets. For so long, pussy has been co-opted to mean “weak.” And you know what’s the opposite of weak? Birthing a f*cking human. So here’s to pussy posses, pussy power, and pussies grabbing back, on Nov. 8 and beyond.

TV: How has internet has changed feminist protest?

JB: In this campaign in particular, I think the internet has allowed women to call out behavior that often goes unchecked. The media take cues from the internet these days, and so if women are online tallying up the number of times Donald Trump has interrupted Hillary Clinton on stage, then it gets reported. And at the end of the day, calling out that very public sexism, no matter how subtle or overt it may be, helps spark a larger conversation about the fact that this sh*t still exists in our daily lives.

TV: You've put the image on a shirt and this week, at least 60 women protested outside of Trump Tower in New York City with signs that said #PussyGrabsBack. Why is IRL protest so important?

JB: I think the "Trump Tapes" were a final straw for many of us, a very clear and public validation that we are not making this sh*t up — sexism and misogyny are real. To me it's been amazing, just over the past couple of weeks, to see so many young women taking that anger and translating it from online discourse into street-level action. We’re angry, and we’re not going to take it anymore.

TV: What’s your advice for younger people, who are not yet old enough to vote? How can they push back, on and offline?

JB: Call out sexist behavior when you see it. Form a posse, a girl gang, a feminist fight club, whatever you want to call it, and support each other. I think one thing we’ve learned from not only Trump, but Bill Cosby and even Fox News, is that it’s easy to dismiss women’s voices. But you know what’s not easy to dismiss? An army of women.

AD: Speak up. Know that you are strong and powerful. Report abuse and harassment, and make as much noise about it as you can. You deserve nothing less than a fabulous life. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a troll. Ignore them. Be proud of being a feminist! Feminism is fun!!!